At 18 – a birthday he celebrated only last week – Alp Karadogan already has a trophy cabinet to envy some of the finest rowers in the world. Two Henley Royal Regatta red boxes – including one secured when he was just 15 – a junior world title, two national titles, two Head of the Charles pennants and numerous other accolades, both on and off the water, across a career that has only spanned three years.
Karadogan burst onto the scene when he joined Bobby Thatcher’s most unlikely of Henley Royal Regatta-winning campaigns in 2022. “Bobby came to me at the beginning of that season and told me I had real potential in the sport and that he would try to coach me into the first eight,” explained Karadogan when we caught up with him shortly before the 2025 edition of the Schools’ Head of the River. “He didn’t give me any guarantees, but that year, the senior squad was slim. I think we only had six guys in contention for the top boat, so the first eight would have to be filled out by J16s and J15s.”
Karadogan – who clocked in at 6ft 7in before his 15th birthday and now stands at a daunting 6ft 9in – remembers that debut Regatta campaign fondly, but not entirely for the reasons you might think. “We had a race against Shiplake on the Wednesday and were down a length within a minute,” he said. “I remember thinking ‘I have to go now or we’ll lose this race’. So, I started sprinting with 600m gone, really trying to lay down the power. I looked over after a minute or so, but we hadn’t moved. Our cox that year (James Trotman) was a great judge of a dynamic situation and, at halfway, called us on. I felt the whole boat lift and realised I’d have to go again. Seat by seat, we rowed them down and by the Enclosures, my vision was basically just black. In the end, we won by a length but after the race, I was completely spent – I think I just collapsed in a chair for an hour.”
Having been written off before the event – not least by this publication – that felt like the moment this young crew came together as potential candidates for the most desirable of schoolboy Trophies – The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup. “That was probably my favourite-ever race,” smiled Karadogan. “I knew we were onto something good.”
Fast-forward nearly three years, Karadogan has had two international campaigns for Great Britain—winning gold in the eight in 2023 and silver in the four in 2024—and another Henley Royal Regatta victory under his belt. With such prodigious talent, the obvious question is whether the Olympic Games are the aim. “It’s definitely an option,” he said. “I’m open to the idea, but it will also depend on what I do when I’m at University. I plan to study at Harvard next year and will try to row there and see what happens. I’m also interested in biotechnology, so I want to see where that takes me. Frankly, I’ll only carry on if rowing stays fun.”
To the uneducated, winning every rowing prize in the land seems like a pretty fun way to spend your spare time. For Karadogan, though, there is the release it brings. “I love the feeling, whether I’m on my own or part of a team, of knowing that this is the only thing I’m currently thinking about,” he explained. “For the duration of your session, you’re only thinking about that and it clears my mind. At St Paul’s, we have lessons in the morning, and then we’re out on the water almost instantly. I come back in the afternoon refreshed.”
The St Paul’s School crew that Karadogan was a key part of in 2024 swept the domestic circuit, winning the historic Quadruple of titles: the Head of the Charles, Schools’ Head of the River, National Schools’ Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta. Despite that, the comparison to the 2018 boat – which achieved similarly remarkable things – was hard to shake off. “We spent much of the season comparing ourselves to that crew,” he said. “To some extent, that’s helpful – to get a feel of where you are – but it can also hold you back. We had a fixture with London a couple of weeks before Henley and they beat us by ten lengths or something. In that situation, we knew how fast we should be going but needed to step back and work out what was going wrong. Refocusing on those fundamentals, getting rid of the distractions and enclosing into a bubble – these nine guys and Bobby – was critical to turning the boat around.”
Karadogan’s exploits off the water have also garnered him substantial attention; his record-breaking attempts on the ergo (he now owns age-group records for 2k, 5k and 30 minutes) have sent shockwaves around the rowing community, and no doubt turned the heads of numerous collegiate recruiters and international selectors. All of this is secondary, though – the records are secondary for the 18-year-old and are part of a process-driven programme. “Bobby drives an unbelievable programme and is so good at interacting with everyone who steps through the boathouse doors,” he commented. “His style is built around transparency and trust. There will never be a scenario where he will keep something from you. He can communicate clearly why we do what we do, and we can tell him what we think and how we respond. I certainly wasn’t very mature when I joined the programme, but he never pushed me beyond what I was capable of at that time.”
Heading into the sharp end of the 2025 racing season, St Paul’s have already laid a few impressive markers, including winning Hammersmith Head outright and placing numerous athletes into the top ten at both the November and February U19 GBRT Trials. With the Schools’ Head of the River just a couple of days away, Karadogan is quietly optimistic about their chances. “We’re feeling confident but not lying to ourselves,” he said. “We know we’re physically strong, but we recognise our competition is in the same bracket. Going into the race, we’re focused on executing our race plan and not thinking too much about the result.”
If Karadogan and his crewmates can win the headship tomorrow, it may kickstart yet another remarkable chapter in the story of what is surely one of Great Britain’s most gifted junior rowers of all time.
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